Flashes of Gold
by LivTheNerdle
Summary: Together they were everything/ /Or Glimmer and Marvel and a lifetime until it wasn't.


Flashes of Gold

Pairing: Marvel/Glimmer

Rating: PG-13/T

Summary: Together they were everything/ / Or Glimmer and Marvel and a lifetime until it wasn't.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

~.~

There's a cannon fire and he knows_knows_knows. He's looking, head tossing back and forth and all he can see is Cato plunging his face in the water as Clove plucks a barb from a sting in her arm and he's running. _NotGlimNotGlimNotGlim _the mantra is deafening and he feels his lips moving but he can't hear what he's saying. What he's screaming. He breaks through the last few trees and the breath is knocked from his lungs. He's on his knees and he doesn't have the strength to walk the rest of the distance to her body. He's crawling until he can pull her head in his lap and drops his forehead to hers. His fingers stroke the engorged flesh that used to be an angular jaw that always tightened when she was frustrated and the corner of her lips which tightened into a line when she was displeased. Katniss Everdeen didn't know her, this girl that the Capitol had made seem like a soulless hooker. This girl was beautiful. Not always on the outside, but all of her, to him, was beautiful. Softly he presses his lips to her bloated ones and he tries to remember them how they were. Together they were everything.

~.~

He's five when he sees her.

The mass crowds of District One's people are exuberant, excitement thrumming through the town square. It's the reaping and he's settled comfortably on his father's shoulders as Aurelius Bauble, District One's Capitol escort, is giving the same speech he's given for over four decades and will seemingly continue to give until he either dies or someone forces him to retire. The small brunette boy scratches at his scalp, only to receive a withering glare from his mother. He'd been picked at and prodded since he'd been woken up that morning and it hadn't stopped until the moment that they had finally walked into the square.

A glance around reveals shined surfaces gleaming for the cameras, small fool's gold and synthetic diamonds are dotting the buildings to make the district seem richer than it actually is, and the citizens of One are wearing their only good clothes that come out only once a year . He'd asked his father, Gleam, about it once; he was given a smarting smack on his rear and told not to ask stupid questions. Aside from the glimmering city and the fact that his brother is leaning heavily against his mother's side with a thumb tucked discreetly between his lips again, there's nothing remotely interesting happening. To say the least, he's bored.

There's a small movement to his left and his eyes dart to a small girl who's running and hiding between other children who, with the distinctly similar features, could only be her siblings. Her cheeks are flushed a vibrant pink and her golden hair is pulled into two low hanging ponytail braids over her shoulders. Turning in circles she slips and bumps into a tall blond headed man. She's being reprimanded by the man whose lips are drawn into a tight line when he doesn't speak when the lithe woman standing next to him swats irately at him while pointing to the stage. In a moment the girl is once again running about. Her smile makes his stomach feel funny.

~.~

The first time he meets Glimmer he's seven.

She's a ways off from the rest of her family, who are watching her thirteen year old brother, Charmeuse, spar an older boy mercilessly. Her hair is down over her shoulders in two pigtails and she's twirling in slow circles in her burlap dress, a small smile forming as the ends catch in the wind. She looks almost approachable in this state.

Gathering up his courage, he pulls awkwardly on the sleeve of his too-big tunic before walking towards her. He offers her a smile, "Hey, I'm Marvel."

She stops her movements abruptly and stares at him, eyes wide and nostrils flared. They stand frozen like this until the young blonde girl walks forward and pushes him so he falls on his backside, "Don't do that!" She hisses the words as she plants her fists firmly on her hips, her lips drawing into a tight line.

His first instinct is to apologize to the girl who looks so offended, but then there's a shift in her eye that says she's looking for something. Standing back to his feet he pushes her back sharply, "Get your panties out of a twist, I just felt bad for you since everyone else always ignores you! So excuse me!" He turns on his heel and walks away brusquely.

Her piercing voice cuts through the air as he continues to make distance between them, "Wait!" And then there's a flurry of footsteps and she's standing right next to him, hand outstretched the way the proper adults in the district did when they were making a deal, "Glimmer. My name is Glimmer."

There's no trace of fear or anger in her voice. Even though she was dressed in rags, she held herself up as if she was from the Capitol. He takes her hand and squeezes tightly back as they shake.

He breaks her finger.

She breaks his nose.

~.~

He's thirteen before they have any classes together at the academy.

He enters the gym to find her knocking down 238 pound Sleek, straddling his chest with arms pinned and a gleaming dagger hovering above his jugular. She hops up with a laugh and winks at the muscular teen before turning away from him and replacing her weapon in favor of a broadsword.

Her eyes meet his and a smirk slides onto her face as she nods for him to join her. He's not stupid; he's wiry with corded muscle instead of being bulky the way many of the boys his age were maturing. His fingers catch a hilt and he slides the weapon tantalizingly from its sheath. She's on him before the weapon's fully removed. The metals smack and clash and its exhilarating and physical.

She matches him in speed while he bears down on her in strength. And then her mossy eyes flash, and her lips are full and pouting-and in the blink of an eye he's pinned beneath her just as the larger boy had been not more than five minutes before. "That was fun," she giggles, and then she's hopping to her feet and skipping away to spar with Effervescent.

~.~

Marvel's name is reaped.

Charmeuse volunteers.

And while her family stands proudly in the square, and boasts to each other in the private of their home, she runs to the boy she could consider a friend.

He's leaning against his parents' store, brown hair flipped up awkwardly in places and feet bare. The day of the reaping was never extremely busy. But she runs and runs until she can throw herself into his arms and bury her face in the side of his neck.

She doesn't cry but she clutches him closely. He doesn't say a word about the way she trembles. "Char's going to be fine Glim," he whispers in her feathery hair.

"I don't even care," she whispers as her nails bite into the flesh of his back.

~.~

Charmeuse dies. Glimmer doesn't shed a tear as his body is ripped apart by mutant reptiles. She doesn't cry when the wooden box of what's left of him is presented to them at the station. But when Marvel slips his hand into hers at the ceremony she drops to her knees and bawls.

"_I couldn't let you lose him Glim. He's the only person that I've ever seen to truly make you smile. Be sure you let him know that or one day you just might lose him for good."_

~.~

He's fifteen when he kisses her for the first time.

She's leaning against his shoulder, seated in the shade behind the shop; her fingers are lazily fastening daisies into a chain. "My parents are pushing Taffeta to volunteer. I don't think she will though. Lately, her and Sleek have been inseparable. I think the only way she'd consider it was if he went. Oh, and while I was sparing with Sheen earlier he kissed me. It was weird. I still pinned him though. Anyways," she rolls her eyes, "Taff's too squeamish to go in the Games anyways…" the girl continues amicably, eyes focused on her hands unaware of the red hot fury pulsing through her friend.

Everyone who had previously thought of her as strange and had kept her at arms distance were just recently coming to realize how beautiful she really was. Girls now flocked to the tables she seated herself at and boys lined up to spar with the blonde headed warrior. She was better than all of them.

"What do you think Marv?" She's turned her vibrant mossy eyes on him, the slow tightening of her lips suggests she's less than pleased he hasn't been paying attention. "Marvel?"

He glances at the daisy chain hanging from her index finger, the same finger he'd broken years before, "It's pretty." And he wants to add something like the older boys at the academy do. Something along the lines of, 'but not as pretty as you.' But his tongue feels dry and his throat constricted. Instead he grabs her face, none too gently, and slams his lips to hers. Their noses collide sharply and their teeth click together while her fist pummels at the side of his face.

Eyes burning he pulls back. Her eyes are wide and her mouth parted. The daisy chain lays crushed and forgotten on the grass between them and her hand still remains poised to strike. She's been frozen in time.

Marvel stands slowly. Hands brush the loose dirt from his pants and his eyes don't quite meet hers, "I'll uh, see you at the academy." He's turned away from her by the time the fingers of the hand she'd pounded him with falls to her pulsating lips.

~.~

He's murdering dummies when she enters the gym five hours before training officially begins. His hands and feet land fatal blows before he snatches a spear and sends it into the center of a dummy's forehead forty yards away.

She claps slowly, making her presence known to him. He continues to avoid her gaze as he steps away from the damaged dummies and heads for the locker-room. "You're being an ass." He turns to her at that. She's leaning against a gray brick wall, arms crossed and an eyebrow cocked daring him to say otherwise.

"That's rich," Marvel calls back, making sure to maintain his distance from the siren before him.

"You're a coward," she spat out, feet moving towards him pointedly, "You're a weak, gutless, coward." She's close enough now that she punctuates each word with a stab to his chest with a sharpened fingernail. His stomach coils tightly at the fire in her eyes.

"Don't. Do. That." It comes out as a snarl as she continues to dig the nail into his flesh and her eyes flash as she glares up at him. "Coward."

He knocks her legs out from under her with a sweep of his legs and then he pushes her back onto the mat. His knees pin her arms to the ground and his arms are supporting his weight on either side of her face. She's got a vaguely familiar look in her eye, like she's waiting for something and he's taking too long to deliver it. His mouth crushes hers. She sighs and kisses back.

~.~

He's seventeen when they start losing it.

"Glim…" She's lost in her own head. "Glimmer." Her eyes close tightly and her head's turning slowly from side to side.

"I'm an awful person," it's not said through tears or horror, but complete and utter apathy. "It was an accident Glim, any of us could have accidentally set him off. You don't have to feel guilty about him dying."

"I don't," it's said strongly, "That's what's wrong Marv. He died from my hands and it didn't even faze me." She shakes her head slowly as her hand clutches his tightly.

"I think I'm forgetting, Marvel." He's confused and he's trying to meet her eyes but she's looking slightly past him. "Forgetting what, Glim?"

Her bright green eyes connect with his, "How to be human."

~.~

"_Marvel was laid out flat on the sparing mat after only three minutes last round and he's been like that all day, Glimmer. He's no good to us if he's not even going to try."_ The golden blonde girl had only nodded coarsely as she walked briskly away from Sheen twenty minutes before. When she passed from the other students' view she'd run from the academy's restricting halls and down rock roads until they turned into dirt. Her feet were coated in the element by the time she was kneeling next to him behind the shop, her fingers linking in his hair, softly scratching at his scalp, and her face hovering over his. His eyes are hazy and unfocused, and he doesn't respond to her touch or voice.

"Come on Marvel, come back to me." It's not until a solitary tear slips down onto his chin that he blinks and his eyes clear from their haze. He's disoriented as his fingers reach up and brush the moisture from under her eye. "…Glim?"

A rare smile overtakes her features before it wavers and the worry engulfs her expression, "Welcome back."

He's shaking his head at her and he sighs resting his head in her lap, "I don't want to talk about it."

"I know." She's silent for a moment, content to just sit in silence with him. "Hey Marvel, you'll show them next year."

_The tears that fall aren't mentioned later._

~.~

He's eighteen when it all ends.

It's the courtyard that strikes him with an odd sense of déjà vu. Aurelius Bauble is back on the stage, hair a vibrant shade of lavender this year, and this year's possible tributes are standing shoulder to shoulder before the stage. He's bored when a flash of gold catches his attention; it's always been her. Glimmer looks radiant. Her hair cascades down her back and shoulders in feathery waves, her magenta dress is clinging to the curves that women across the district scorn her for, and a sense of peace seems to surround her. Turning, she casts a glance in his direction and offers him a smile. Not one of the smiles she'd offered to the boys whose eyes followed her with lust or that she offered to the trainers at the academy. No, for him, Glimmer only offers genuine smiles.

"Ladies first," It must cross districts because he's heard their winning tributes come back and complain about the Capitol people all having the same lame jokes. Aurelius' hand dips into the bowl and withdraws a small sheet of paper, "TAFFE-"

"I VOLUNTEER!" Glimmer's stepping forward; a sultry smile painted on her face while two rows back her seventeen year old sister's muscles contract. And that's it. The only person he's had, the only person he's ever needed is leaving, and that's it. It's the seal on the package after his brother's death in the prior Games.

Glimmer's sauntering onto the stage when the district escort reaches his hand into the other glass bowl. The man doesn't even get to part his lips before Marvel's stepping forward and calling out, "I volunteer as tribute." The blonde girl's eyes flash and she's trying her hardest to tell him no, but it's too late. They were tied together from the beginning. He wouldn't leave the arena.

~.~

His mother is wailing. She's clutching him and her face is pressed against his upper arm, tears soaking through his only good reaping shirt. His father is standing back a few feet, trying to hide the glistening moisture that's misting his brown eyes. This was it. This was the last time he would see them. There's a pang in his chest when he thinks that last year he'd been telling Glint to try to come back to them, and here he was without a doubt in his mind that he himself wouldn't be returning.

His mother's dimmed blonde hair is shaking as she turns her swollen blue eyes on him, "You didn't have to volunteer. You didn't have to!"

"Mom, I-she's _Glim_." And his voice is cracking and his mother's trembling uncontrollably and shaking her head wildly.

His father's pulling the short statured woman back into his arms and he's taken Marvel's hand into his larger one, "You've got two options son. You keep her safe or you come home to us." Gleam pauses for a moment before meeting him eye to eye, "You keep her safe, son."

And there are free flowing tears down the older man's face now, and Marvel's tucking himself into his embrace. Clutching his mother and his father to him for the last time.

"I love you Daddy," it's whispered and he's burying his face in his mother's shoulder as he whispers his love for her into her ear.

The peacekeepers are coming in and pulling them apart too soon.

"I'm proud of you son," are the last words he'll ever hear from his father.

The door slams closed before its being thrown open a moment later.

~.~

Glimmer's family is looking at him in confusion. They'd never understood why their daughter had been so obsessed with keeping a district 'upper ender' as a friend; they'd never understood why he would want to affiliate with a 'lower ender' in the first place.

Glimmer's younger sister, Taffeta, is walking forward and wrapping her arms around his middle. She doesn't cry the way his mother does, with screams bouncing off of the concrete walls, but her shoulders shake and small squeaks slip from between her parted lips.

Twin girls that would be ten in three weeks and a small boy with his older sister's eyes gather beside Taffeta and wrap their arms around him.

The tall man who had reprimanded his daughter those few years before is standing rigidly, but his drawn lips are trembling and his dull eyes are boring straight into Marvel's. The small woman beside him is clutching his hand and her knuckles are white, "She was never supposed to go in. That was the only thing Charmeuse wanted, the only thing he made me promise him before he left. Both of you. He begged me to make sure that you two were never forced into their games, and now both of you…" She looks lost, they'd lost a son already and they had been so proud when he'd gone in.

He meets Glimmer's father's eyes and nods, "I'll try to keep her safe." And he hesitates for a moment as his eyes shift to the large doors that will be opening soon, "If things had been different sir, I would've liked to ask for your permission to marry your daughter. I would've promised you to take care of her and to make sure she had everything she could ever need to be happy."

This man who had always seemed so cold and so distant was dropping his face into his hand as tears dripped down onto the marble floor and was shaking his head, "I would have said yes."

And they're swept away from the room and there's no one else who would be coming to see him before he left, left to die.

~.~

The doors are opened slowly and two peacekeepers are walking with Glimmer and she's staring at him with empty eyes, behind her there are two more peacekeepers who he assumes are for him and he nods. They're shuffled through the town towards the station and now they've both put on their masks and are smiling and smirking as they pass the Capitol's cameras. As they board the train they both look towards their parents and he nods towards Glimmer's father. Taffeta's leaning heavily against Sleek as she waves weakly to her sister. This was it, this was the final goodbye.

The train doors slide closed and Glimmer slips her hand into Marvel's and they follow Aurelius and their two sponsors, Cashmere and Gloss, to the dining room. Everything they say passes through one ear and out the other until they're dismissed to their quarters. The blonde haired beauty is leaning heavily against his arm and he's leading her into his room. He wants to say he's sorry, wants to tell her he would have done anything if he could have kept her from this fate. She's shaking her head and tucking herself into his embrace. She traces her lips over the column of his throat until she's pulling his mouth against hers. And then all too fast they're composed of colliding lips and breathy moans as they fall back onto an overly plush bed. Her body trembles and shakes as her nails make bloody tracks into his back and she cries out in pleasure. In response he's making dark marks along her neck and in the valley between her breasts until he's falling weakly on top of her and he's breathing in her scent in desperation.

"I won't be the one to kill you," she gasps as her arms tighten around him to prevent him from removing his weight from her, "I won't." Not for the first time he notices the tears that are rolling discreetly down her cheeks and he kisses them softly away, "You won't have to, I promise. We'll find another way if we have to. It doesn't matter if I make it out as long as you know, Glimmer I just, I love you. I do. I love you and I would've married you if I could've, I even asked your father and he said he would've let me marry you…I promise I'll keep you safe in the arena. I promise, I just…" He's blabbering on and his eyes are squeezed tightly closed as he shakes his head back and forth. She's silent, for too long and when he opens his eyes her lips are parted and there are tears that are truly rivers making paths down her tanned cheeks. Her trembling fingers are reaching for his cheek and she's shaking her head slowly, "I've loved you for years, Marvel."

"Would you have married me?" His eyes are hiding his fear as his fingers trace the supple flesh along her hip.

Glimmer's nodding her head slowly, eyes never breaking contact with his, "I would have married you, I would have mothered your children, and Marvel, I would have loved to have grown old with you."

~.~

When the interviews have her flouncing around in a dress shorter than sin, he has to restrain himself from slamming Cato, the brutish tribute from District 2, in the face. Afterwards she's wrapped in his arms, clinging to him on their last night. "Stay by me, in the arena."

"We can't play the lovers angle, Marv. The Capitol is too in love with the District 12 tributes. We need to make the other Careers trust us to the point we can slit their throats in their sleep later."

His features tighten and he's shaking his head, "I won't let you near him, Glimmer he's dangerous!"

"In case you've forgotten Marv, so am I." She smiles tiredly before she draws her lips slowly along his jawline, "I love you."

~.~

They fight back to back when they can. During the bloodbath he impales anyone who tries to go after her with his spears, and she slits the throats of anyone who has the notion to go after him. Afterwards they're heaving and he's smiling discreetly at her. Glimmer nods back to him before sauntering over to Cato and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Marvel has to turn away. He pretends he's focused on gathering their spoils instead of imagining how many ways he could impale the giant boy on his spear.

After the sun goes down, Glimmer volunteers them to take the first rotation. Once they're ten yards into the woods he's got her pressed to the trunk of a large oak and his mouth is assaulting hers furiously. She's breathless and her fingers are fisted in the lagniappe of his jacket. He can almost hear his father's chuckles and his mother's disdain.

"I know, Marv. I know." She whispers when he pulls his mouth away and rests his forehead against hers. He's trying to get his breathing under control as he digs his fingers into her hips, shaking his head slightly, "I hate this. I fucking hate this."

"I know Marvel, I do too." She bumps her nose gently against his, "I am so in love with you, Marvel. Only you."

The tension in his shoulders dissipates and he sighs, "I love you, Glim."

~.~

Five days. That's all she had made it in the arena. The humming of the hovercraft is becoming louder as it approaches, softly he presses a final kiss to District 1's beauty and when he stands he knows he left his heart in her cold dead hands.

~.~

He stumbles around in a haze for four days. Everything hurts, everything aches. He leaves Cato and Clove three days after Glimmer, because he can't look at Cato without thinking _your fault_ and he can't think _your fault_ without his conscience saying _you promised._ His fingers wrap tightly around his spear and he occasionally stops and sets a trap before continuing on. He's stopped living. His heart beats within his chest; breath enters and leaves his lungs, and his feet continue on, but he stopped living the moment he found her. Now he's merely surviving. Marvel drops to his knees wearily, fingers digging into the dirt as he throws his head back to scream at the sky, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

There's a scream, a small cry, _"Katniss!" _It registers slowly, the small girl from the training rooms, District 12's little shadow. He's on his feet again _One last kill_ and his fingers are clutching the spear determinedly. _She'll kill me, she'll end me, she'll do it_. Nausea overwhelms him as he sees the small girl wrapped in the netting and for a moment he thinks of Glimmer's younger twin sisters before he wipes the image from his mind. He releases the spear, and as the Girl on Fire releases an arrow all he can think is _For Glimmer. _

He's drowning, gargling, choking, dying. There's a small movement in the sky. The last thing he saw was a flash of gold.


End file.
